Amir's "fashion" show

School is almost out here. Four more weeks to go. And only today, for the first time since I got here, I went to Amir's school to give him the much needed moral support a child needs from his/her parents. Finally! I had missed his sports day, international costume day, and his swimming gala and I am so ashamed to admit this really. Especially, when I had never missed any of my children's school activities back in KL,came rain or shine. Even when their sports day was held on a working day, I applied for leave. I NEVER missed any event. But since I came here, I became very calculative that  I had chosen not to attend any activities in their schools just because I can't stand the crazy, unreasonable taxi fares.

Like today, I spent 100 riyal on taxi!! Gila you! That's like a third of our weekly grocery spending. I knew it would cost me but I had enough of "hurting" my children's feelings. My excuse for not attending Amir's other  school event before this - what I told him lah - was because of Imran. He would be running around here and there out of boredom and in the end, I would not be able to focus on his big brother's main event. And most of the times, Amir and Nina would say they understand.

But for Amir's school assembly where his class is doing some songs and dances on fashion and Amir being given some lines to recite out loud (listening to him practising the lines this past week and sounding very British at it!), I promised him I would not miss it for the world.

And I am glad I did. As the kids appeared on stage I could see how their eyes and faces lit up when each of them spotted their parents at the back of the hall. I got teary-eyed a bit actually as I was overwhelmed with guilt for missing his previous performances/participation. And at the end of the show, when all the kids ran down the stage to hug their parents, I am HAPPY that I did not let Amir down.

A few of the pupils did not have their parents there and they looked so heartbroken, I felt sorry for them. One Malay girl, upon noticing that I am Amir's mom, came to me shyly and I felt like hugging her! She told me her mom can't come because "adik demam." I hope it's true because from what I heard, her parents hardly never turned up to other events too. Well, they missed quite a show because her performance was better than Amir's!

Next week is Nina's swimming gala. She said she wants me to come and I said, see first lah. I have to fair what? I had missed Amir's swimming gala but have attended Nina's choir show and Alice the Musical play (both were held at night and the ride was FOC of course courtesy of Papa).

But I told them, next year I will try not to miss anything more. Because Imran will start his school next year and I will ride the FREE school bus at 7am even if the show/event starts at 10am or 12pm, I would not mind the long wait because I am a caring and cheap mom!

Amir's biggest sceptic - his mom

Yesterday, had a meeting with Amir's class teacher. Since Amir has only been in the school for a month and a half, I came to the meeting with no high expectation. So imagine my surprise when I was "presented" with wonderful news about my playful and very manja 9-year-old son. Amir is apparently clever, bright, outspoken and very popular too! "Quite an achievement for someone so new in class," she said. Oh boy oh boy! This is despite his limited fluency in the English language. His teacher said, even his English has improved a lot. That bit I had noticed at home when I hear him reading his books. His only weakness, said the teacher, is his inability to "write on the lines." ??? I really see nothing wrong in that as long as he is writing in straight line. But obviously, it is important to this school. Whatever....

But coming back to Amir. He is quite unique. Everytime I attended a parent-teacher meeting regarding him, I always came out a bit surprised. He never failed to kind of impress me. Even in his exams. (Ask him what he learned in school today? His classic answer is : "Mmmm... entahlah tapi adalah belajar." )

This is my boy who only knew his ABCs (only A to G, mind you) and numbers 1-10 when he was 3.5 years old. Never interested to speak in English. Not interested in books, no matter how colourful they were. When he was almost four, he attended a playschool in England for 3 months and again surprisingly, the teachers told me how participative he was in class. Again, despite his very limited English, he somehow thrived.

Then when we returned to KL, we decided to send him to a newly set-up kindergarten, just behind our house, ran by a Malay lady as we thought we did not want to burden him with too much stress (read:homework) if he was to attend schools like Q-dees, CEC or Smart Reader. We wanted things to be easy for him. But the Malay lady turned out to be a thief. After collecting the fees for the second half of the year, she decided to close the school and ran away with the money! So, Amir never did learn anything from that short 5-month period. He never liked the school in the first place and dreaded to be sent to another school. So we let it be and he was free of school for the next 6 months.

The next year, he attended Smart Reader and again being a playful boy he is, he "graduated" from the school with little knowledge but a lot of friends. He entered Standard 1, still "crawling" in his reading, both BM and English. He was put in the last class after the school assessed him. We were not surprised. For the first six months, he was struggling with his reading and writing but he was good with numbers. Shockingly, came July 2007, just out of the blue, he began to read so well, I was like SHOCKED! By the end of the year, he was number 2 in class and got "promoted" to the second top class for Standard 2. And he continued to do well, always in the top 6 and got promoted again to the top class in Standard 3.

I really don't know how to explain him. When doing his revision at home, he ALWAYS asks for help, as if he knew NOTHING. He hardly had homework. He read Doraemon books, period. But his teachers would comment: Amir seorang yang cerdik.....

When we came here, enrolling him in a Brit international school was a bit worrying. So when the school suggested that he takes ESL program, we were all for it. And amazingly, he is doing good and settling well in school.

I might always be sceptical of him and not easily pleased, despite what others said of him, but let it be known I am always so proud of him.